Matter and Consciousness

301 Pages·2013·5.877 MB·English

by  Paul M. Churchland

Matter and Consciousness

MATTER AND CONSCIOUSNESS
third edition
Paul M. Churchland
A Bradford Book
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 1984, 1988, 2013 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
First edition published 1984 by the MIT Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Churchland, Paul M., 1942– .
Matter and consciousness / Paul M. Churchland.— Third edition.
pages cm
“ A Bradford book.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-51958-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Philosophy of mind. 2. Intellect. 3. Consciousness. 4. Cognition.
5. Artifi cial intelligence. 6. Neurology. I. Title.
BF431.C47 2013
128’.2— dc23
2012049084

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface to the 2013 Edition vii
Preface to the 1988 Edition ix
Preface to the 1984 Edition xi
1 What Is This Book About? 1
2 The Ontological Problem (the Mind– Body Problem) 11
1 Dualism 11
2 Philosophical Behaviorism 36
3 Reductive Materialism (the Identity Theory) 40
4 Functionalism 63
5 Eliminative Materialism 73
3 The Semantical Problem 87
1 Defi nition by Inner Ostension 87
2 Philosophical Behaviorism 91
3 The Theoretical Network Thesis and Folk Psychology 93
4 Intentionality and the Propositional Attitudes 103
4 The Epistemological Problem 111
1 The Problem of Other Minds 111
2 The Problem of Self-Consciousness 119
vi Contents
5 The Methodological Problem 135
1 Idealism and Phenomenology 135
2 Methodological Behaviorism 142
3 The Cognitive/Computational Approach 147
4 Methodological Materialism 153
6 Artifi cial Intelligence 157
1 Computers: Some Elementary Concepts 160
2 Programming Intelligence: The Piecemeal Approach 167
7 Neuroscience 191
1 Neuroanatomy: The Evolutionary Background 191
2 Neurophysiology and Neural Organization 201
3 Neuropsychology 221
4 Cognitive Neurobiology 226
5 AI Again: Computer Models of Parallel Distributed
Processing 241
8 Expanding Our Perspective 261
1 The Distribution of Intelligence in the Universe 261
2 The Expansion of Introspective Consciousness 278
Index 283
Preface to the 2013 Edition
Since the original edition of this text appeared, the several sci-
ences that bear on the philosophical issues surrounding the mind
have continued to make gratifying progress, as was only to be
expected. In addition, the philosophical literature has become
enriched by a number of arresting thought experiments that try
to move the debate forward — but, perhaps surprisingly, a way
from materialism, in one direction or another. For example, the
inaccessibly alien subjective experience of Thomas Nagel ’ s bat ,
the residual phenomenal ignorance of Frank Jackson ’ s scientifi -
cally omniscient neuroscientist Mary , the missing inner life of
David Chalmers ’ s otherwise humanlike z ombies , and the absence
of any real semantic content in the inner states of John Searle ’ s
Chinese-speaking room have all become icons of philosophical
resistance. They have all raised new doubts (or old doubts in a new
form) about the prospects of comprehensive explanatory success
for the research programs of computational artifi cial intelligence
and cognitive neurobiology— that is, for the prospects of a purely
physicalist account of all mental phenomena. Even so, the com-
putational and cognitive sciences continue to make relentless and
illuminating progress in accounting for diverse cognitive phe-
nomena, as this new edition will also try to highlight.
viii Preface to the 2013 Edition
In sum, the intellectual situation is now even more engaging
and taut with controversy than it was thirty years ago, when
the issues compelled me to write the fi rst edition of this text.
My hope is that this new and relevantly augmented edition will
allow both teachers and students to delve yet a few layers more
deeply into the philosophical and scientifi c issues that shape
our current understanding of the Mind and its place in Nature.
I commend their evaluation to your own native intelligence,
whatever its ultimate nature — physical or nonphysical.
Preface to the 1988 Edition
I have been much gratifi ed by the kind reception given the fi rst
edition of this small book, especially where it concerned the sec-
tions on neuroscience, cognitive science, and artifi cial intelli-
gence. As it happens, these sections are the focus of most of the
changes and additions in the revised edition. The motive for
change is the dramatic progress that continues to be made in
these disciplines and their expanding relevance to issues in the
philosophy of mind. These research results bear directly on ques-
tions such as: what are the basic elements of cognitive activity?
How are they implemented in real physical systems? And how is
it that living creatures perform some cognitive tasks so swiftly
and easily, where computers do them only badly or not at all?
A central conviction of the fi rst edition was that issues in the
philosophy of mind are not independent of the theoretical and
experimental results of the natural sciences. That view has not
changed. But developments in the sciences have. This new
edition attempts to make some of the more striking of these
results accessible and intelligible to a wider audience. Their
philosophical signifi cance, as I see it, lies in the support they
tend to give to the reductive and the eliminative versions of
materialism. But my opinion is only one of many alternatives.
I invite you to make your own judgment.